What have you damaged?

[TraceMalin]

I thought it might be interesting to talk about the mistakes we've made that damaged caves and maybe turn it into a "lessons learned" thread.

The first time I broke something was on the first dive of my cavern course at Vortex Spring. Durig my descent, I spotted a ring formation in the rock and thought it would be a good tie-off point. As I was making the second tie, I broke the ring off the rock formation. I really was upset at myself like when you run over a squirrel or another animal by accident.

My first lesson was how fragile formations can be.

The last time I knowingly did significant damage was in Mermaid's Cave in the Bahamas. Nearing the exit of the cave intoi the cavern zone, there are numerous stalactites and stalagmites and we often switch to a mod flutter kick to squeeze through the tight spaces. I had thought I had gotten the path figured out like a slalom run for a skier and was a little too careless as I allowed myself to wander in thought and not really "be there" in that moment. I felt a scrape above me, stopped with a quick reverse back kick and then sank down more before swimming forward carefully. After exiting the system and walking down the path with my buddy, she found a really nice hefty and long finger of cave had been wedged between my bands. Ouch! Sorry all. :-(

Lesson learned: Pay attention. These systems can be replaced and if you get cocky, confident, or less aware of the environment you can do priceless damage.

What have you damaged in caves that you regret and what did you learn?

[bamamedic]

All right, I'll 'fess up...

On one of my first dives after Intro class, I went on a cavern dive in Jackson Blue. We were wandering around in the cavern, looking under ledges, and exploring in general, when I saw a perfectly intact sea biscuit partially exposed but still embedded in the rock. I reached out to touch it, and it practically exploded from the brush of my fingertips...the entire sea biscuit fractured into nothing but little pieces.

I was amazed that something underwater could be so delicate, and it saddened me greatly to realize that my carelessness destroyed something that has been around for eons.

From that point on, I made it a priority not to damage anything at all. Even when pulling and gliding against high flow, I make it a point to be very, very careful where I let my fingertips fall.

[Dsix36]

It would appear that not very many people are willing to jump into this post with any stories of what they have damaged.

I really don't give a damn what other divers might say or think about me and my diving and will go ahead and spill my story. This does not mean that I don't care about the caves and preseving them though.

It was one of my training dives in Peacock. During the dive, I was the last to enter and made a big mistake in venting my wing. Needless to say my bouyancy suffered greatly and I plummitted to the cave floor. I was scared to death of the impending silt storm that was about to begin. I held my self perfectly motionless and let myself fall with my left arm pointing straight down. I know for a fact that the silt is at least 3 foot deep where I went down. I remained very still as I inflated my wing enough to raise myself out of the silt. After I regained control and in fear of having lost any visabilitly for the exit I looked behind to see the damage. There was a small "poof" of silt that was about 18 inches in diameter and about the same height. I could not see the hole that I made and when were returned past it on the exit it was still clouded over abit. I know that I made a nasty hole in the cave floor. I have been very paranoid of siltly bottoms ever since and make it a point to never contact again.

[cloudboy55]

The damage I've been guilty of has been related to ceiling contact.

[RN]

Just the other day I was in a not very frequently dived cave off the beaten path. Visibility was about 5'. My head tapped a formation on the ceiling (I didn't see it sticking down) and suddenly I saw a piece of rock over half the size of my head tumble down through the water! It was so fragile I barely even felt the tap on my head. Unfortunately, I don't know how I could have done anything different to avoid doing that. I didn't even know I was that close to the ceiling as I was just following the line.

[BackstageDiver]

Before I had any overhead training, I was doing a guided dive at Paradise as OW. The guide was pointing out some of the features on the ceiling - fossils and stuff - and so I flipped upside down to look up. I found out that my sense of buoyancy goes to about zero when flipping upside down, so I grabbed onto a slight protrusion to help steady myself as I got it back under control. Even just the slight force of my hand steadying myself caused a rather large chunk, about head size, to break off and fall to the floor. I was kicking myself that I did that, and now I'm paranoid every time I have to touch a rock anywhere.

[scububa]

This is a little off topic, but perhaps close enough. Up here at Roubidoux we have have a lot of water this spring and early summer. The system is just getting back to divable. The flow has been high, the waterlevel up and the boil extreme.

On a dive over the weekend I noticed a surprising (to me) amount of damage to the passage surfaces. The most remarkable is all the fresh chips out of the ceiling and high on the walls. I would have expected it down low, but was surprised about it being up high. Lots of rock heads broken with a few laying on the line. Evidently the amount of debris heavy enough to do that kind of scrubbing is pretty well mixed in the water column.

Slim, I swear I didn't do it!

[LCF]

On my first cavern tour, I hit the ceiling, and found a chunk of rock between my wing and tank when I was breaking down my equipment. I was horribly embarrassed, and I learned that you don't have to hit anything very hard to hurt it.

On my second cave diving trip to MX, I had led in (as I am often asked to do, because my gas consumption is low). This means I'm almost always tail-end Charlie coming out, swimming like a madwoman to keep up with my "expedite the exit" buddies. In this particular case, I got focused on keeping up and lost focus on the environment, and swam full-tilt into a very large stalactite. I think you could hear the bell sound of my tanks ringing all the way to the cave entrance. Several lessons here -- Rather than swim madly, tell the team to slow the **** down; keep your head up and, "look at the ceiling, the ceiling is what you are going to hit"; and anxiety narrows perception.

[skip]

I was fortunate enough to have joel invite me into ruth springs a couple of years back (before the map). I had been practicing side mount for at least a year and arrived in cave country days early to practice side mount in the florida caves. I was ready, or so I thought.

Ruth was a challenge or I was not ready. In any event, my buoyancy was awful. I avoided major damage for most of the dive on the way in, but was fighting every inch of the way and finally thumbed the dive. On the way out, I lost control and in an effort to regain control grabbed an outcropping that merely came off in my hand, then hit the ceiling hard and rained bits and pieces down on us both (as I dumped gas and headed to the floor). I was so embarrassed, I couldn't look joel in the eyes, could only mutter about how I really did know how to sidemount....

I went home with my tail between my legs, and joel has been very cordial and understanding ever since.

But to this day, I still see ruth as my challenge for sidemount and although I've made several trips to cave country specifically to dive Ruth in sidemount, I've backed down every time; one time in the water ready to run the line only to back out and go home.

That damn Ruth Walker Spring! Some day.....

-skip

[LCF]

Well, I guess I can add to this list. I kicked out of my boot and fin during an air-share drill in Hole in the Wall last week, lost my balance, and put my hands in the silt several times before I got the one fin behind me in the right place to kick. I'm not sure what the take-home message is -- I've practiced one-fin swimming, but it was just the sudden equilibrium change when it came off that tipped me over. And in 800 some odd dives, I've done this twice, and once was with boots attached to the suit, and once with boots over a drysuit sock, so I'm not sure changing equipment would prevent it, either.